Kevin Garnett recorded his sixth straight double-double and
shattered the New Jersey Nets' comeback bid with a huge follow
slam with 25 seconds to play as the Minnesota Timberwolves held
on for a 108-101 victory.

Tom Gugliotta sank four crucial free throws in the final two
minutes and finished with 24 points and Sam Mitchell scored 12
of his 18 points in the second quarter, when Minnesota took the
lead for good.

Kendall Gill, who scored eight of his 20 points in the fourth
quarter, made two foul shots to pull New Jersey within 103-99
with 44 seconds to go. The Timberwolves missed two shots but
were able to grab a pair of offensive rebounds before Garnett
followed a miss with a thunderous one-handed dunk over Gill.

"His (Garnett's) thing is the team," Timberwolves coach Flip
Saunders said. "As long as the team wins, that's all that
counts. He does a lot of little things that people don't
notice, but coaches do."

Garnett finished with 14 points and 10 rebounds for Minnesota,
which beat New Jersey by 20 points last month and has won four
straight overall in this series.

Rookie Keith Van Horn and Kerry Kittles scored 22 points apiece
for the Nets, but that duo combined for just two points in the
final period. New Jersey had its four-game home winning streak
snapped and lost for the first time in 11 games when scoring 100
points or more.

"We played a good team, we can't expect them to lay down on the
road," Kittles said. "We came back in the second half and made
a good run, but it wasn't enough."

"This win builds confidence," Garnett said. "Coming into New
Jersey, which is a hunky-dory team with Kittles and Van Horn,
it's a confidence boost that does a lot for you."

Sherman Douglas, who scored 16 points off the bench, hit a layup
to pull the Nets within 92-91 with 4:15 to play. But Gugliotta
answered by driving around Jayson Williams on the baseline and
making the easy lay-in.

Gill's layup cut the deficit to one less than a minute later but
Mitchell sank 1-of-2 from the stripe and Gugliotta hit the next
four free throws for a 99-93 edge with 1:12 to go. New Jersey
came no closer than four points thereafter.

"Put the loss on everybody, not just one person. It was a
well-rounded loss," Nets coach John Calipari said. "We weren't
playing with energy."

Van Horn's hook shot put the Nets in front, 32-31, with 10:20
left in the second quarter. That turned out to be New Jersey's
last lead of the game, as Minnesota reeled off a 12-2 run.

Mitchell sank two free throws before Garnett and Terry Porter
hit back-to-back buckets. Mitchell hit three straight hoops to
cap the burst, with his short hook giving the Wolves a 43-34
lead with 6:48 remaining.

Gugliotta's three-pointer with five-tenths of a second left
before halftime built the lead to 60-46.

"Expectations are a lot greater than last year. The same record
as last year is not good enough for the organization or the
players," Gugliotta said. "We have to improve, we have to
develop chemistry and trust in each other. In the last 10 to 12
games, we've shown that."

Minnesota's Stephon Marbury, who had 17 points and seven
assists, converted a three-point play to make it 73-60 midway
through the third period, when the Nets finally answered with an
11-1 spurt.

Williams had 11 points and 17 rebounds and sparked that run with
a three-point play. Van Horn had a dunk and hit a free throw
when Marbury was whistled for a technical foul to cap the burst,
trimming the deficit to 74-71. New Jersey trailed 85-80 after
three quarters.

"I just can't explain why we lost this game," Williams said.
"The first half killed us, we could never get over that
three-or-four-point hump."

The Nets played the entire fourth quarter without starting point
guard Sam Cassell, who is suffering from a shoulder injury that
forced him to miss Thursday's win over Orlando. He said after
the game that the shoulder was bothering him, but regardless, he
had been rather ineffective, finishing with just four points,
seven assists and four turnovers.

Porter finished with season highs of 16 points and six assists
for the Timberwolves, who shot 51 percent (40-of-78) from the
field.